Precious metals split on Monday with gold and silver falling and platinum and palladium rising. Gold’s loss was its first in three sessions.
Gold for February delivery – the new, most-active contract — lost $2.90, 0.2%, to settle at $1,785.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"The metals [gold and silver] are being pressured by negative outside forces on this day, including a stronger U.S. dollar index, a bounce in the U.S. stock market and rising bond yields,” Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note.
Gold futures ranged from a low of $1,782 to a high of $1,801.50. They gave back 3.6% last week.
Silver for March delivery — the new, most-active contract — declined 28.3 cents, or 1.2%, to end at $22.852 an ounce. The settlement was the lowest since Oct. 12 when silver finished at $22.514 an ounce.
Silver futures traded between $22.77 and $23.46. They sank 6.8% last week.
In other precious metals futures prices on Monday:
-
January platinum added $10.20, or 1.1%, to $964.50 an ounce, ranging from $951.30 to $979.50.
- Palladium for March delivery — the new, most-active contract — added $8, or 0.5%, to $1,789.20 an ounce, trading between $1,705 and $1,804.50.
Last week platinum fell 7.9% and palladium plunged 13.7%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2021
Published U.S. Mint bullion sales increased on Monday by 448,000 ounces in silver coins and a combined 24,500 ounces in gold coins.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Last Week | September | October | November | 2021 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 19,500 | 24,000 | 67,500 | 135,500 | 116,500 | 1,065,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 4,000 | 7,000 | 6,000 | 94,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 2,000 | 2,000 | 8,000 | 22,000 | 10,000 | 160,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 5,000 | 0 | 35,000 | 85,000 | 40,000 | 490,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 4,000 | 8,500 | 24,000 | 41,000 | 39,000 | 339,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 448,000 | 0 | 2,735,000 | 1,076,000 | 1,447,000 | 28,198,500 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1 Oz Palladium Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8,700 | 8,700 |
| Tuskegee Airmen 5 oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52,900 |
Oh no, I don’t want to be number 1 and spoil the game for SENZA and Sir Kaiser. But speaking of tag, it looks like palladium tagged gold today for number 1 with gold back to number 2 from being number 1 at last Friday’s close.